Back in the '70s, before slasher movies and 27 cable news channels exposed the lethal dangers of hitchhiking, hitchhiking was actually a legitimate form of transportation. This comic gives the lowdown on hitching, including tips on how to catch a ride and safety precautions. The book is written and illustrated by Pat Ryan and Russ Rosander. I can't find anything else that Rosander did for underground comics, but Ryan was a talented cartoonist and did some work for Yellow Dog and a nice story for Tales of the Leather Nun. His work in Hit the Road definitely saves this book from the dregs of underground history.

Ryan and/or Rosander clearly intended this book to have more issues than just this one, as they repeatedly invited readers to send in hitching tips and hitching stories to The Print Mint for future publication. Alas, there was never a second issue, which might have been more interesting than this one. Because although there's a few trippy hitching stories in here, I imagine real-life hitchhikers could have provided some even better ones from those golden days of thumbing on America's highways.

Ryan has an interesting history on the fringes of underground comics. He was friends with a lot of legendary rock poster artists in San Francisco through the "Peanut Gallery," a collective that included himself, Alton Kelley, Stanley "Mouse" Miller, Victor Moscoso and Dave Sheridan, among others. Ryan later partnered with Sheridan in 1980 to open C.O.D. Grafix in Fairfax, where they launched the fictitious California Homegrowers Association, which produced a lot of cool designs for marijuana-related labels and postcards. After Sheridan's untimely death in 1982, Ryan continued his successful career as a painter and poster artist. He now lives in idyllic Roehnert Park, California and participates in various art exhibits throughout the Bay Area.HISTORICAL FOOTNOTES:
It is currently unknown how many copies were printed of this comic book. It has not been reprinted.
COMIC CREATORS:
Pat Ryan - 1, 3-13, 17-19, 27-36
Russ Rosander - 2, 14-16, 20-26